Art Styles and Words to Use to Describe the Stonehenge
Stonehenge Glossary
The names used to draw dissimilar parts of Stonehenge can be confusing. Here you tin find definitive explanations for the words used, as well every bit descriptions of different periods of prehistory and other words associated with Stonehenge.
Chantry Stone
A sandstone block within the inner horseshoe of stones at Stonehenge, which today lies underneath the fallen upright of the tallest trilithon.
The Altar Stone is of a different geology from all the other stones, existence a type of sandstone known to accept been brought from southward-due east Wales. We practise not know whether information technology once stood upright or was always horizontal. The 17th-century builder Inigo Jones seems to accept been the start to call information technology the Altar Rock.
ANTIQUARY
Someone who studies or collects ancient artefacts and archaeological sites in guild to gain knowledge about the past.
Usually the term is applied to the gentlemen scholars of the 17th to the 19th centuries, who had an interest in surveying and excavating prehistoric monuments. Many round barrows in the Stonehenge area were opened past antiquaries. Some were intent only on finding aboriginal artefacts to add to their own collections only others recorded their excavation advisedly and their work forms the ground of our agreement today.
AUBREY HOLE
1 of a band of 56 pits placed just inside the ditch and banking company at Stonehenge, dating from the earliest phase of the monument.
The Aubrey Holes probably held woods or stone pillars, and cremations were placed inside and around them. They are named after the 17th-century antiquary John Aubrey, who was the outset to notice and plot depressions in the grass that showed their positions. A total of 32 take been excavated.
BC AND Advertisement
Designations for the years earlier and afterward the year Jesus Christ was born, designated as the twelvemonth 0. BC stands for 'Before Christ' and Advertizing for 'Anno Domini' (the 'year of our Lord').
It might seem strange to apply a Christian agenda organization when referring to British prehistory, only the BC/Advertizing labels are widely used and understood. The years BC run backwards in time from the yr designated as 0. For case, the sarsen stones were raised at Stonehenge in near 2500 BC, which is about 4,500 years ago.
BLUESTONE
Igneous rocks that are foreign to the chalk geology of Salisbury Plain.
Bluestone is not a geological term but a convenient label for all the smaller stones at Stonehenge, which are non sarsen stones. They are a multifariousness of types, including dolerites, spotted dolerites, rhyolites and volcanic tuffs, all of which come up from the Preseli Hills in south-west Wales.
BRONZE AGE
A flow of prehistory which in Britain lasted betwixt well-nigh 2200 and 1150 BC.
The Statuary Age began about 2200 BC when the employ of metallic and new styles of burial, including the structure of round barrows, became widespread. Later, in about 1500 BC, people inverse the focus of their action to edifice the earliest field systems and permanent settlements. The menstruation concluded when fe was widely used: the start of the Iron Age.
CAUSEWAYED ENCLOSURE
An early on Neolithic monument consisting of a roughly circular expanse of land bounded by one or more than lines of banks and ditches.
The ditches were dug equally a series of elongated pits, with narrow gaps or causeways, between them. The enclosed areas appear to have been used for a diverseness of activities: temporary settlement, ceremony, ritual deposition, feasting and perchance the exchange of appurtenances. A recent programme of dating these monuments has shown that they were congenital between 3750 and 3500 BC. The closest to Stonehenge is Robin Hood'due south Ball.
CREMATION
The use of a high-temperature fire to burn dead animal or human bodies, leaving behind ashes and small pieces of burnt bone.
Cremation and inhumation (the burying of a whole body) are the two principal ways of burial the expressionless. Cremated remains are as well known to accept been cached in prehistoric Britain: at Stonehenge and other sites in the Neolithic flow, and inside round barrows in the early Bronze Age.
CURSUS
A long and relatively narrow enclosure, built in the early on Neolithic menstruum, divers by earthwork banks with external ditches.
Ordinarily more than 250 metres long, these enormous enclosures were built between about 3600 and 3300 BC. Their function is not known, although they were presumably ceremonial spaces. They may too take formed barriers or routes across the landscape. At that place are two most Stonehenge – the Stonehenge (or Greater) Cursus and the Lesser Cursus.
Druid
A fellow member of the priestly grade in Britain during the Iron Age (c 700 BC – Advertising 43), as recorded past Classical authors at the fourth dimension of the Roman conquest in the 1st century Advertizement.
Little is known about the Atomic number 26 Age Druids. Written Roman accounts, the merely known sources, refer to rituals involving sacred oak groves, the cutting of mistletoe, and sacrifices of beast and humans. In the wake of the Celtic revival during the 18th and 19th centuries, friendly societies and neo-pagan groups were founded based on received ideas most the ancient Druids.
EQUINOX
An event that occurs twice a year (effectually xx March and 22 September), when the airplane of the Earth's equator passes the center of the sun.
At this time, nighttime and day are about equal length. In that location is no articulate evidence that the prehistoric people who built Stonehenge marked the equinoxes also as the solstices, but other megalithic monuments (such as a burial cairn at Loughcrew, County Meath, Ireland) are known to marshal with the dominicus at these times of year.
HEEL Stone
A large upright stone, standing where the Avenue meets the earthwork enclosure.
This stone, unlike all the other sarsen stones at Stonehenge, is unworked and retains its natural shape. It may have been an isolated rock that was raised upright in the Neolithic period. Information technology marks the position of the ascension sun at the summer solstice. It may take always stood lonely or have been paired originally with a second, now lost, stone. Its name may derive from a legend associated with Stonehenge that relates how the Devil threw a rock at a friar, leaving the friar'south heel imprint on it.
Henge
A Neolithic earthwork enclosure, ordinarily circular, defined by a bank with a ditch inside it.
Henges can enclose a diversity of other features: timber or stone circles (as at Woodhenge and Stonehenge), standing stones or fifty-fifty, in the case of Durrington Walls, settlements. Recent research suggests that henges may have been built afterward the primary activity on the site. This type of monument is named after the earthwork at Stonehenge, but that is at present viewed as an unusual early type of henge, because the ditch is exterior the bank.
LINTEL
A horizontal cake that spans the space or opening betwixt 2 vertical supports.
At Stonehenge, the lintels are the horizontal stones that form the tops of the outer sarsen stone circle, and also those that residue on ii upright stones forming each of the five cardinal trilithons.
Long Barrow
Rectangular or trapezoidal mounds of earth and/or stone, oft with ditches on either side, built in the early Neolithic menstruum every bit burial monuments.
Long barrows were built betwixt near 3800 and 3400 BC, and were generally used for communal burying, sometimes with simply parts of skeletons selected for interment. The mound itself sometimes covers stone chambers, timber burial structures or partitions. Those with stone chambers are often called 'chambered tombs', as opposed to the earthen long barrows that are more than mutual in the Stonehenge surface area.
Mesolithic
Mesolithic: A flow of prehistory, which in Britain lasted between about 9700 and 4000 BC.
The Mesolithic (or Middle Rock Historic period) began in Britain at the stop of the last Ice Age, when hunter-gatherers migrated back into southern England from continental Europe. It lasted until the start of the Neolithic menses, when the showtime domestic crops and livestock were introduced from continental Europe.
MORTICE
Part of a joint used to connect adjoining pieces at a 90° angle, used at Stonehenge to join upright stones to horizontal ones.
The tops of the upright sarsen stones at Stonehenge have i or 2 modest round knobs, or tenons. These were fitted into mortice holes in the underside of the horizontal lintels, forming a simple merely stiff joint. This blazon of mortice and tenon articulation is more than often seen in woodworking, but stonemasons telephone call it a 'joggle'.
Neolithic
A period of prehistory, which in Britain lasted between about 4000 and 2200 BC.
The Neolithic (or New Stone Age) began in southern United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland near 4000 BC, signalled by the arrival of the first domestic livestock and crops, and the first pottery from continental Europe. The catamenia ended when the use of metal and new styles of burial were widespread, about 2200 BC, the outset of the Statuary Historic period.
Northward BARROW
One of two enigmatic roughly round earthwork features of unknown date, situated merely inside the earthwork enclosure at Stonehenge.
Although these earthworks were given the name barrows by antiquaries, they are not burying mounds. They surround ii of the Station Stones but their date of construction is unknown. The earthworks of the Northward 'Barrow' announced to suggest that information technology was congenital before the much larger outer earthwork enclosure of Stonehenge. When the Due south 'Barrow' was excavated by the archaeologist William Hawley in 1921, he constitute a chalk floor, which may suggest there was one time a modest building there.
Round Barrow
An earth mound, commonly roofing one or more than graves or burials and surrounded past a round ditch.
Built mostly betwixt 2200 and 1500 BC, in the early Bronze Age, round barrows also embrace other features such as timber burying structures, rings of timber posts or pits. Many have unlike phases of construction and enlargement.
SARSEN STONE
A type of hard silicified sandstone found scattered naturally beyond chalk areas of southern England.
Sarsen, a hard rock created from sand bound by silica cement, formed as a chaff over chalk geologies. Often fossil root holes tin be seen in the stone, from millions of years ago when the stone was still forming. Over fourth dimension the rock was broken upwards into big pieces and scattered by geological processes.
SLAUGHTER Stone
A sarsen stone, which originally stood upright but is now lying flat on the ground, near the north-eastward entrance to the stone circumvolve.
The thought that this stone was used for slaughter appears to have been started by an anonymous writer, who referred to it in 1776 as a 'table, upon which victims were dissected and prepared'. The idea and proper name seem to have resonated with 18th- and 19th-century romantic fantasies of the Druids. In reality, it is i of 2 or three upright stones that once stood across the causeway entrance to Stonehenge.
SOLSTICE
An astronomical event which happens twice a year, when the apparent position of the sun in the heaven reaches its most northerly or southerly extremes.
The summer solstice is marked past the longest twenty-four hour period. The date varies between 20 and 22 June, depending on the year. The winter solstice is marked by the shortest day, either 21 or 22 December each year. At Stonehenge, it appears that both of these events were marked past the layout of the stones and the position of the Avenue. Viewed from the centre of the stone circle, the sun rises adjacent to the Heel Stone at midsummer and sets between the stones of the tallest trilithon at midwinter.
STATION Stone
One of four outlying sarsen stones, placed in a rectangle around the inner edge of the earthwork enclosure. Simply 2 survive today.
The stones were named by Edward Duke, a 19th-century antiquary and owner of Lake House in the nearby Woodford valley, who referred to these stones as 'astronomical stations'. The short sides of the rectangle formed past the stones were aligned on the solstices, like the stone circle, and the long sides are orientated to the most southerly possible ascension position of the moon. These four stones may have been erected earlier the stone circumvolve.
TENON
Part of a joint used to connect adjoining pieces at a xc° angle, used at Stonehenge to join upright stones to horizontal ones.
The tops of the upright sarsen stones at Stonehenge have one or two modest circular knobs, or tenons. These were fitted into mortice holes in the underside of the horizontal lintels, forming a elementary only strong joint. This blazon of mortice and tenon articulation is more than often seen in woodworking, but stonemasons telephone call it a 'joggle'.
THE Avenue
This late Neolithic monument connects Stonehenge to the river Avon, i.7 miles (2.eight kilometres) away. It was probably a processional road.
Built in about 2300 BC, after the sarsen stones had been erected at Stonehenge, the Avenue consists of parallel banks and ditches forming a corridor about 12 metres broad. Today it has been largely destroyed by ploughing, simply the earthworks are notwithstanding visible shut to Stonehenge. It was discovered in 1721 by the antiquary William Stukeley, who named it and noticed its alignment to the solstices.
TRILITHON
The formation of two upright stones capped by a horizontal lintel.
The 18th-century antiquary William Stukeley was the first to coin the term trilithon, from the Greek for 'three stones', afterward which the give-and-take seems to have entered common usage in English language. There are five trilithons at Stonehenge, which brand upwardly the inner horseshoe of sarsen stones.
Source: https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/history-and-stories/history/stonehenge-glossary/
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